Have you ever wanted a blog of your very own? Join me this week for the first three lessons on setting up your own WordPress.com blog – it’ll be a piece of cake!

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Pictures, Tags and Categories

I’m baaaaack! =) And let’s dive right into the deep waters (hold your nose!) and learn about inserting images into your posts. I know you’ve been dying to learn!

First, find an image. One from your computer, one from a website that offers free downloads. Careful here, make sure you aren’t taking a copyrighted photo.

Got your image? Here’s mine. Ain’t he a cutie?

• Open (edit) the post you want to add the picture to.
• First, click your cursor where you want your picture to display.
• Click on the button that matches the one outlined in red here. (yours won’t have an outline, sorry!) This is the upload image button.

Hang on! The entire screen went black! Take a deep breath, it’s supposed to. Whew.

• Make sure the From Computer tab at the top is selected.
• Click on Select Files. A Dialog box will open.
• Navigate to the photo on your computer you want to upload
• Click on the file name once to highlight it.
• Click open on the Dialogue box.
• Wait a few seconds for it to upload and crunch. Yes, it’s supposed to crunch. It’s ok. Really.

Tada!!

Scroll down a bit and you’ll see all this fun stuff.

• Fill out the information by Title, etc. Use Alternate Text and Description to make it easy for disabled readers to “read” what your picture is about.
• Add in a caption if so desired. It will appear under your photo.
• Alignment – Choose one –
• None – The picture will show up in the upper left hand corner, but the text will start at the bottom right corner of the photo.
• Left – I almost always prefer my pictures to be left aligned, with the text flowing to the right of it.
• Center – If you have a larger picture, choose to center it, and the text will flow underneath it.
• Right – The picture will post on the right hand side, with the text to the left.

• Size: I generally choose thumbnail, although you can pick any size including full and edit it down smaller later. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you how.
• Finally, click insert into post.
• Mop your brow.

There you go. One beautiful photo inserted into your post. Click update, view post and sigh in awe at yourself. You go, girl.

Need to make it bigger or smaller?

• In Edit mode, click on the picture. If you click on the skyline looking picture, you’ll go back to the black screen. It lets you change the size and the alignment of your photo.

• On the left hand side under Edit Image there’s a percent slider. If you run your mouse pointer over that, you can see how various sizes look with the random text. You can also change your alignment here. Ah, don’t look under Advanced Settings. There be dragons here.

Need to delete your photo?

• In Edit mode, click on the picture. Choose the large, red, ominous looking “X”. Poof. It’s gone.

Tags – Tags are keywords to help search engines find your post. Eh? Let me explain. Suppose you write a wonderful blog post on How To Raise a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig. Who’s going to look for it? First of all, anyone with a VPBP. Where are they going to look? On a search engine, such as Google or Technorati. (links) When Bob in Oklahoma is wondering how to feed his six-week-old VPBP, he’s going to do a search. Now, if your post has tags that list Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs, there’s a good chance Bob is going to visit your site to see what you have to say. And he might come back again! This is what builds your readership. Tags help your post find the right readers.

So, let’s add in some tags.

This is your tags box.

• Type in all the tags that pertain to your post (please please please only use tags that pertain to your post!) and separate them with commas. On RU’s post about Challenging Couples in Love, their tags were Attraction, Chaos Theory of Writing, Character Development, Characterization, Relationships, Romance Writing, writing tips. It all fits in with the article.
• Click Add. That’s it. Done and over.

Suppose next week RU writes a post on Writing the Alpha Male. If I click on “Choose from the most used tags” the tags I used previously appear, and I just have to click on Character Development and Characterization to make them appear as a tag for this new post. See how that works? Slick.

What about Categories you might ask? (You didn’t ask, but I watched Carnac the Magnificent a lot when I was a kid, so I just know.)

Think of categories like the Dewey Decimal System. Your blog is going to be awesome (that goes without saying) but every post belongs in a category. If one day you write about Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs, and the next day you’re writing about Characterizations, just think how confused your multitude of readers will be. Categories are used to help your reader navigate your blog.

• Click on +Add New Category
• Type in your category name – ie Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pigs
• Click on Add New Category

Like magic – Shazam! Your new category appears. Anytime you write an article on VPBP, you would put a check mark in the category column next to the name, to categorize your article.

And that takes us to the end of Lesson Three. Aw….don’t cry, there’s going to be more! Stay tuned for next time when we’ll discuss more of those fun items on the dashboard!

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Carrie is a faculty member on Romance University. In her spare time she manages a restaurant, designs jewelry and websites, and is writing three manuscripts concurrently. She lives on a farm in Iowa with seven cats, a husband from England and, as was discovered in the mudroom last week, two skunks. You can visit her blog anytime at Smart Ass Romance.

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